Aquatic plants

Award winning Aquatic Plants

Our quality is second to none. Our regular customers expect this high quality, new customers often remark on it. This is why top garden designers use Anglo Aquarium for shows such as Chelsea and Hampton Court. When exhibiting at Hampton Court Flower show we won five Tudor Roses, seven RHS gold medals, four RHS silver guilt medals and two RHS silver medals. Due to our excellent quality of plants and fantastic project team we never failed to achieve an RHS medal. After introducing the Natural Swimming Pond to the UK, often called a Natural Swimming Pool, our project team is now part of our sister company Anglo Swimming Ponds. This same high quality award winning plant quality is delivered to all our garden centres and landscape designers as standard.

Please see our availability list for plants currently available. For plants not on this list but in our Catalogue please ask.

Anglo Aquarium is the largest producer of high quality aquatic plants in the UK, most stock is British Grown on-site from cuttings or seed.

Marginal Plants

We sell marginal plants in 9cm pots (sold in trays of 8), 1 litre pots (sold in trays of 6) and 3 litre and 5 litre plants are sold individually. Our stunning 3 litre marginal plants in stylish hexagonal pots with an easy to carry handle are driving garden centre retail customers to pay the extra and purchase a larger plant size. The three and five litre plants are excellent for landscape designers and architects wanting to create an instant effect and beautiful finish to their project.

We stock 143 varieties of true aquatic marginal plants, of which over a third are native to the UK and we have excellent availability throughout the season.

Nymphaea (Water Lilies)

We stock 75 varieties of nymphaea, nearly all these varieties are available in 3, 10 and 30 litre pots sizes. The 3 litre size is ideal for Garden Centres, whereas often landscapers will choose the larger sizes.

Please note, lilies like full sun and still water, do not place them near a fountain or where water can splash on the leaves.

Nymphaea alba, often called âWhite lilyâ is the only lily native to the UK.

Deep Water Aquatics

Deep water aquatics are an alternative to lilies, more tolerant to shade. Nymphoides and Aponogeton are excellent for a small pond or addition to a large lake. Apponogeton is prolific flowering very early and late in the year, usually flowering as early as March and as late as December with scented white flowers. The sizes available depend on the plant variety.

Oxygenating Plants

Oxygenating plants are often referred to as the most essential ingredients to a pond. They photosynthesise under water creating oxygen, which then dissolves into the water. This is not only essential to all animal life, but also for bacteria which help keep the water clear.

Many oxygenating plants have two forms of foliage; submerse (foliage below the water) and emerse (foliage above the water) and they can look very different.

Oxygenating plants are sold in two forms, either as bunches with a weight which can be placed straight into the water or potted first before being placed on the deeper shelved areas of a pond. Potting gives the plant access to nutrients which improves growth. These varieties are shown on page 12 of the catalogue. Of our oxygenating bunches, twelve are native, one (Elodia canadensis) is naturalised and only two are non native to the UK.

Container oxygenating plants usually prefer being placed on a ledge but some varieties can be placed deeper. These are in the Marginal section of the catalogue and denoted by a green O. They are sold in 9cm, 1 litre and 2 litre pots, with some also being available in 3 and 5 litre pots.

Floating Plants

Floating plants provide shelter for fish and other animals. They also help reduce algae by reducing the light in the pond and absorbing nitrates. We recommend a third of the surface of the pond should be covered by floating plants.

We sell seven varieties of floating plant, two are native to the UK. In 2010 we started stocking the hardy strain of Trappa natans native to Europe, although they require a good summer to over-winter. Please ask for details. They are sold loose or in carry away tubs.

Semi-hardy and Tropical Aquatics

We sell a small range of semi hardy and tropical aquatic plants. The lilies require protection in winter, the marginal plants should survive a mild winter (except Cyperus papyrus) but protection from frost is recommended as it will improve growth rate the following season.

Moisture Lovers

We supply a wide range of container grown moisture lovers including gunnera, ferns, hostas and primulas. These are excellent for boggy areas near ponds or other areas of the garden. Please note, most pond plants are also suitable for areas of damp soil as not all need to be submerged, look for ones that say the minimum depth is zero. We stock over fifty-five varieties of moisture loving plants. A further 105 marginal plants stocked by us will grow in damp soil conditions.

Molluscs

As well as plants we stock snails and mussels. Planorbis corneus (Ramshorn snails) eat algae from the side of the pond while Viviparus georgianus (Trapdoor snails) eat algae from the bottom. Mussels (we stock Swan mussels and Painters mussels) filter water and help keep a pond clear. We do not sell Stagnalis (the great pond snail) and recommend avoiding this species as they eat plants. Snails are sold loose or in a carry away containers.